After voting against Patriot Act extension, Paul calls for Senate hearing

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BOWLING GREEN, KY (WAVE) – Kentucky's junior senator is calling for a review on Middle East refugees allowed in the U.S. after federal agents arrested two suspected terrorists in his hometown of Bowling Green.

Not even 60,000 people live in the city between Fr. Knox and Ft. Campbell.

"Bowling Green is such a laid back town," said local Josh Eicher. "I never thought that we would see that around here. It's really surprising."

Two of its residents were arrested for violating federal terrorism laws, which has a U.S. Senator from Kentucky asking questions.

"At least one of them had been in prison in Iraq and had been fighting with the insurgents and had been accused or put in prison for planting IEDs at the time," said Paul. "What I want to know is how the heck did he get in our country then?"

Paul is talking about 30-year-old Waad Ramadan Alwan. 23-year-old Mohanad Shareef Hammadi was also arrested. Both men are accused of trying to provide weapons to support Al Qaeda.

"We're going to ask for Senate hearings on this," said Paul. "We're going to send a letter to the State Department to ask why are we letting 18,000 people per year from Iraq, granting them political asylum in our country?"

Paul wants to know if security and intelligence agencies missed these two because they were stretched too thin.

"(Is it) happening because we're spending time searching millions of innocent Americans and wasting time on that and not doing a thorough job on those coming from these middle east countries, who I think need to be thoroughly vetted before entering our country?" asked Paul.

He also expressed concern over student visas, requesting an investigation into those.

"We want to know more info about how they're policing student visas," said Paul. "If they're not doing it adequately, that might be an answer to stop them for awhile."

Paul, who is on the Senate's Homeland Security Committee is asking for a hearing on Capitol Hill even though he stalled a vote on the Patriot Act, challenging privacy issues. He still defends this move, even after these arrests.

"There was either a judicial review or grand jury review of this," said Paul. "That's the way we should fight crime, so I'm unaware that the Patriot Act had anything to do with apprehending these alleged terrorists."

The two men had their initial appearance in federal court in Louisville, but will back in Bowling Green on June 8.